NJ Senator Frank Lautenberg Dies

The last World War II veteran serving in the US Senate, Frank Lautenberg, passed away this morning at 89. Lautenberg served from 1982-2000, then came out of retirement to replace the disgraced Bob “The Torch” Torrecelli on the Democrat ticket in 2002. He’s been there ever since.

Lautenberg was a self-made man who pushed typically leftist causes in the Senate. From all accounts he was a good man. I voted against him twice solely because of his politics — among other things he pushed for stricter gun control measures and more Amtrak (go to the Secaucus RR station in New Jersey and you’ll see the Northeast’s version of Robert Byrd). Yet, he also helped to get smoking off of planes, which is kind of nice.